2025-26 Topps Chrome Update Basketball Variations Guide

When ripping into packs of 2025-26 Topps Chrome Update Basketball cards, some collectors have come across individual cards that don’t look like the rest of the cards or one of the product’s parallels. That’s because they’ve uncovered one of the three variations within the set.

All rare finds, Image Variations, Denim Tears Variations, and Minions Variations each have limited checklists and distinctive characteristics that can help collectors quickly identify what they are looking at.

This guide will break down all the variations from the product (click on any name below to be taken directly to information about that set):

• Denim Tears Variations
• Image Variations
• Minions Variations

Each section includes images and other information about the variation in question. If you still have questions about your card, please leave a comment and we will do our best to get the answer for you.

Denim Tears Variations

Topps has made collaborating with culturally relevant brands a big part of its sports card portfolio in recent years, and the newest foray brings together 100 NBA players and Tremaine Emory, the founder of Denim Tears. According to its website, Emory’s artistic style and clothing designs interpret the “personal experiences and collective history (and) overlooked yet highly influential narratives at the heart of the Black American experience.”

Shop for Denim Tears Variations on eBay

To create the rare variation in Topps Chrome Update, the company printed one of the premier Denim Tears patterns throughout the card’s border. The checklist includes the first 90 veterans on the base checklist and 10 select rookies, but collectors will not see these cards very often (as an example, a Denim Tears card falls once every 303 hobby boxes or 1:26 cases). Pack odds for all formats include:

• Hobby – 1:6,054
• Jumbo – 1:2,415
• Delight – 1:201
• Value – 1:17,433
• Mega – 1:109,866
• Fanatics – 1:8,774

Image Variations

Image Variations have become a common feature of Topps Chrome products for many years, and it’s very easy for collectors to tell if they’ve found one from Topps Chrome Update. Not only do the cards have alternate photographs — posed shots, just as was the case in the flagship Chrome product — but the cards are also printed with a Speckle foil pattern exclusive to the image variants. The first 40 veterans on the checklist and 10 select rookies make an appearance.

Shop for Image Variations on eBay

While not easy to find, the Image Variations aren’t the toughest pull either. They land 1:150 hobby packs (or 1:8 boxes), so collectors can expect at least one per case. Pack odds for other box types include:

• Jumbo – 1:68
• Delight – 1:48
• Value – 1:324
• Mega – 1:223
• Fanatics – 1:213

In addition to the base versions, collectors can also find six levels of parallels for each player. Starting with Green Speckle (/99) and dropping to Superfractors (1/1), collectors will be looking to complete a second rainbow for their favorite player with a variation.

Here are the pack odds for parallels:

• Green Speckle /99 (Hobby – 1:1,513; Jumbo – 1:677; Delight – 1:446; Value – 1:3,263; Mega – 1:2,278; Fanatics – 1:2,106)
• Gold Speckle /50 (Hobby – 1:2,994; Jumbo – 1:1,340; Delight – 1:892; Value – 1:6,515; Mega – 1:4,431; Fanatics – 1:4,129)
• Orange Speckle /25 (Hobby – 1:5,998; Jumbo – 1:2,679; Delight – 1:1,724; Value – 1:13,029; Mega – 1:8,847; Fanatics – 1:8,099)
• Black Speckle /10 (Hobby – 1:15,063; Jumbo – 1:6,782; Delight – 1:4,309; Value – 1:32,230; Mega – 1:22,383; Fanatics – 1:19,142)
• Red Speckle /5 (Hobby – 1:30,361; Jumbo – 1:13,858; Delight – 1:8,618; Value – 1:64,459; Mega – 1:45,150; Fanatics – 1:35,094)
• Superfractor 1/1 (Hobby – 1:161,920; Jumbo – 1:79,680; Delight – 1:25,854; Value – 1:322,295; Mega – 1:218,225; Fanatics – 1:210,560)

Minions Variations

In a collaboration with Universal and Illumination Studios, collectors will find that five players transformed into cartoon characters on rare variations of their base card. Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Stephen Curry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Cooper Flagg each have a Minions variation, a special project Topps coordinated around the release of Minions & Monsters, which hit theaters on July 1.

On these cards, the players are reimagined as various Minions characters, but the odds are very tough at 1:12,456 packs (or 1:623 boxes). Additional odds are:

• Jumbo – 1:4,830
• Delight – 1:761
• Value – 1:35,073
• Mega – 1:219,731
• Fanatics – 1:17,547

Shop for Minions Variations on eBay

Like the Image Variations, the Minions Variations also have parallels — though there’s only two levels:

• Red /5 (Hobby – 1:253,001; Jumbo – 1:99,850; Delight – 1:8,287; Value – 1:708,750; Mega – 1:2,419,263; Fanatics – 1:210,560)
• Superfractor 1/1 (Hobby – 1:1,214,400; Jumbo – 1:479,279; Delight – 1:39,776; Value – 1:3,402,000)

Protect Your Collection With:

• Penny Sleeves — Amazon | Target | eBay | Fanatics
• Top Loaders — Amazon | Target | eBay | Fanatics
• Binders — Amazon | Target | eBay
• 9-Pocket Card Pages — Amazon | Target | eBay